Mechanism for opening and closing vehicle-doors.



I. E. WOODWARD'. 'MECHANISIVI FOR OPENING AND'CLOSING VEHICLE DOORS.

PPLlcATloN HLED sEPT.3o. 1914.

u 11,188,523. n Patented June 27, 19.16. I

WITNESSES; 1N VENTOR. g J Wovon/AED.

III ATTORNEY.

55 Y which loosely extends through a slot riNiTn sr s JAMES'E. WOODWARD, OF DENVER; (2011033314130.

MECHANISM Fon OPENING AND closING vEHIoLu-Doons.

Application filed September 30, 1.914. Serial o. 864,306.

To all whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, JAMES E. lVooDwAnD, a citizen of the United States, residing at Denver, in the county of Denver and State of Colorado,- have invented certain new and useful Improvements in Mechanism for Opening and Closing' Vehicle-Doors, of which the following is a specification.

My invention relates to mechanism for opening vehicle doors, and its object is to provide a mechanism yof simple construction by means of whichl the driver of a twoseated vehicle, such as a four or five passenger automobile, can unlock and open the doors in the rear portion of the vehicle body without leaving his seat.

An embodiment of my invention has been shown in the accompanying drawings in the various views of which like parts are similarly designated, and in which,

Figure 1 represents a fragmentary plan view of an` automobile to which the mechanism for opening the doors has been applied, Fig. 2, a longitudinal section of the same taken along the line 2 2, Fig. 1, and Fig. 3, an enlarged section along the line 3 3, Fig. 2.

Referring more specifically to the drawings, the reference numeral 2 designates the body of a motor driven vehicle including the front and rear seats 3 and 4, and the doors 5 which close the tonneau at opposite sides.

The doors are normally locked in their closed position by means of bevel-ended bolts 7 which are slidingly mounted in lined recesses 8 of the door to enter sockets 9 in the forward edges of the frames in which the doors are hung. The bolt of each door is yieldingly held in its locked position by a coiled spring 10 which engages at its opposite ends a pin on the bolt and a shoulder in the recess in which the latter is disposed, and the bolt is provided with a laterally extending knob 12 by means of which it may be withdrawn from the socket independent of the operating mechanism which will hereinafter be described. The bolt 7 of each door is at its rearward end connected with the upper extremity of a downwardly curved bar 13 which is movably disposed in a recess 14 continuous to that in which the bolt has its movement. The connection between the bolt and the bar is established by means of a transverse pin 24 on the one formed in the other, whereby the bolt may` be moved rearwardly for the purpose of withdrawing 1t from Vlts socket, without changing the position of the bar.`

A. foot lever-'16 fulcrumed in suitablej bearings 17 above the floor of the car-body adjacent the front seat 3 of the same, projects through a slot 18 in the bottom of the said body for its operative connection with the bar 13.

A rod or pitman 19which extends beneath the botto-m of the vehicle body is connected with the lever adjacent its lower extremity of the operating mechanism to their normal position, and to thereby close the door auto- 'matically when after it has been opened by a -movement of the lever, the latter' is released from pressure.

Vhen it is desired to open both doors of the tonneau` by means of one and the same operating lever, the pitman is branched at a point adjacent its connection with the lever to connect with the bar 13 on the two doors as is illustrated in Fig. 1,

When the doors of a car-body to which my invention is applied are in their closed position, they are locked by means of the sliding bolts which are held within the respective sockets of the door frames by the action of the springs 10.

An occupant of the rear seat can by means of the knobs 12 withdraw the bolts from the sockets to open the door vindependent of the operating mechanism, by reason of the slotted connection of the bolts with the respective bars 13, and the doors when thus unlocked can be opened against the action of the spring 23 which, when the doors are subsequently released, returns them automati-l cally to their closed position.

To open the doors from the front seat of the vehicle, the driver or other occupant of the seat moves the lever about its fulcrum vby pressure ofthe foot.V The consequent movement imparted to the rod 19 causes the wrist pin 21 at its outer end to travel through the slotl in the guide 22 at the bottom portion of the door recess, with the result that the bar 13 is moved rearwardly and the bolt 7 at the forward end thereof is withdrawn from its socket. As soon yas the door is thus unlocked it is compelled to move about its hinges by the lateral pressure of the wrist pin at the end of the rod 19 against the guide 22 in which it has its movement, the

rod having su'llicient resiliency to bend outwardly through the slot in the bottom ot the vehicle. lVhen subsequently the lever is released from pressure, the spring 23 will cause the door to automatically return to its closed position and to be locked by the bolt which by the engagement of its beveled eX- tremity with the edge ot the door frame is compelled to move inwardly against the pressure of the spring l() until it is brought in alinement with its socket.

It will be understood that if so desired a hand-lever may be substituted for the footlever shown in the drawings, that instead of connecting the two doors of the tonneau with one operating lever, they may be connected independent of each other, with separate levers, and that other variations in the construction and arrangement ot the parts of the mechanism may be resorted to within the spirit of my invention as deiined in the` following claim:

The combination with a. pivoted vehicle door having an elongated slot at its lower edge extending at substantially right angles to the pivotal axis of the door, of'a latch for locking the door in closed position, an operating lever pivoted at a remote point to one sido of the plane ot' the door when closed, a rod pivoted at one end to the lever and provided at its opposite end with a wrist pin extending slidingly into said elongated slot, and a connection between the latch and the wrist pin whereby when the lever is operated the latch is rst unlocked and the door is subsequently swung on its axis. In testimony whereof I have aiiixed my signature in presence of two witnesses.

JAMES E. WTOODVVARD.

Vitnesses G. J. RoLLANDE'r, L. RrroADEs.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents.

i Washington, D. C. 

